Ameristar Casinos, Inc. (ASCA)

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PEG = 0.87

Ameristar reports, in effect, that they have bought the law to their advantage in MO and CO. Yet this may change back the other way as well. Indian competition, changing social values (like the no-smoking rules) are unpredictable. Global and National competition still draw more people not just high rollers to Vegas & places like Macau

This company was individually screened to verify that during the boom years ('04-'08), their Balance Sheet expansion appeared excessive or at the very least aggressive. At some point or another, something's gotta give with this company. Income will start collapsing due to debt levels, and/or dividends will be slashed or removed, and/or significant losses will be realized. The chances of this being a growth company or having significant growth is heavily muted due to its dividend paying obligations at the current levels of today.
This company was personally found after using a screener. The screener yielded many companies that often relate to the energy/commodity industry, or FIRE (financial insurance real estate).

google screener options:
Market cap over 400M
Dividend yield over 2%
1 Year price change better than -35%
price to book 0.9 or higher
total debt/assets (recent qtr) greater than 50%
total debt/equity (recent qtr) greater than 50%
13 week price change greater than 10%

After individually screening for companies appearing overvalued due to Balance sheet expansion, it yielded the following stocks to short:
EPE NRGP NRGY OFC EV EPB CNK ASCA MAA EVR

For the heavy shorting within the energy sector as part of the above picks, I will offset them with the following longs relating to energy/commodities:
LONG on PBT, BPT, SJT, GCC

Company is carrying a massive amount of debt, incredibly dangerous in this economic environment

Loses money, heavy debt, and big divergence lately in Chaikin Money Flow. Found on askstockguru 5-day relative strength screen.

ASCA has an illiquid balance sheet. It is also loss making.

Loss making, current ratio below 1, huge long term debt.

UNDERVALUED... Trading at -25 P/E ratio...

Gaming stocks beaten severely, look for the upswing.

There is only one way to make money with the casino that I know of... and that is to be the casino.

Gaming stocks, that include companies which made several billionaires, are low, low, low. Now is the time to buy.

Creating a portfolio based on calling outperform on every alcohol, tobacco, pornography and gambling stock I can find.

Good running casino. No major foreseeable troubles. Casino-lots of cash!

This stock beat the estimates for the last 3 quarters. Their fundamentals are questionable. But at this price, I have to put them at a buy.

Casino's make money, remember the house always wins!

This stock is worth the gamble!

Just opened a 400 suite luxury hotel and casino in St. Charles along with state of the art machines, a bar, a night club and a luxury spa. Currently building a large skyscraper hotel in Blackhawk, CO with an already open casino.

I am new to the game here and am not approaching this from a financial analysis standpoint (as I don't have the tools quite yet), but more of a basic economic one. Hope my first rating goes off alright. Here goes.

I live in downtown Chicago. The Chicago Transit Authority (the CTA) is the government entity that provides funding for the city's public transportation. The CTA is severely underfunded. Last week, the Illinois government was forced to intervene and provide emergency funding to avoid a shut down of some 81 bus lines and increasing transportation fares by some 50-75% (from approximately $2.00 to $3.25 per trip). That is a significant rise for those who don't spend their time on the CAPS board. More importantly, the money provided by the Illinois government was only a stop-gap measure. The CTA is already looking at repeating the above cuts and rate hikes come January 11th. So what does this have to do with ASCA you ask?

ASCA's main assets are in "Chicagoland". For the uninitiated, Chicagoland includes the sprawling suburbs around the city of Chicago itself, which includes northern Indiana. All of the casinos in Chicagoland are located in northern Indiana (on quasi-boats), about 45 minutes from downtown Chicago, as Illinois does not allow casinos. So spill it already.

There has been talk for many years now of allowing casinos in downtown Chicago. The current administration has been opposed to casinos. However, faced with needing a permanent solution to the CTA problem the Illinois government is now considering a downtown casino. Don't believe me: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/642036,cta110807.article

Now I don't know actual figures (though I do know a few gamblers), but my guess is that a significant portion of the patrons of the Indiana casinos come from downtown Chicago or the surrounding suburbs. In addition, any casino licenses granted in the city are likely going to result in massive Vegas style attractions (how many cities/destinations the size of Chicago have casinos DOWNTOWN?!). Having been to the existing casinos, they will not stand a chance against such a behemoth/s. And I, for one, will never drive 45 minutes to get my gambling fix if I can travel 10 minutes in a cab. I would guess that the legislature agreeing to grant a Chicago license would severely damage this stock's value. Better hope they sell soon.

There is a good chance of a buy out of HET slots by ASCA.
ASCA has solid financials. The only negative is that they have domestic only investments.